The Essential Guide for First-Time Homeowners: Maximize Your Investment & Enjoy Your New Home (USA Today/Nolo Series) [Paperback]

Ilona Bray J.D. (Author), Alayna Schroeder J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J.D. J (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2008

This book is for people in their 20s and 30s who’ve just bought a home and need to balance its competing financial demands. The book homeowners will reach for every day, to answer questions about saving and spending on a mortgage, maintenance, decorating, remodeling, insurance, taxes, and more. Timely advice on how to steer well clear of foreclosure. It picks up where the slew of home buying books leave off, with crucial advice on things like updating your homeowners' insurance, preventing disputes with neighbors, refinancing, and more Fun tips on things like budget decorating, gardening, and housewarmingparty planning. With helpful reminders on how to maintain your house's value for when you sell.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Skip the stress! Enjoy your new home.

From the Author

9 Money-Saving Tips for New Homeowners
From the authors of Nolo's ESSENTIAL GUIDE for FIRST-TIME HOMEOWNERS

October 27, 2008 Berkeley, CA--Today's economic climate can raise anxiety levels, especially for first-time homeowners. New homeowners probably passed stringent tests to qualify for a loan, and for many, cash reserves are at an all-time low. How can they enjoy their new nest without stressing out? Ilona Bray and Alayna Schroeder authors of The Essential Guide for First-Time Homeowners (Nolo; October 2008 ISBN 13: 978-1-4133-0895-2) offer nine helpful tips:

1. Improve for you, not for resale. You may have thought you'd be in your first home a few years, but find that dismal market conditions keep you in place. If you need to stay put longer than expected, improvements (like an extra bathroom or bedroom) can make the place more comfortable long term. But if you're justifying laying out cash for major home improvements with the idea that you'll recoup the cost when you sell, do some research first. Most home remodeling projects don't pay for themselves. You'll get the biggest resale boost from kitchen and bathroom remodels and front-yard landscaping.

2. Protect the environment, save money. By hanging your laundry out to dry, washing clothes in cold water, cleaning or replacing your furnace and air-conditioning filters, putting on a sweater and turning your thermostat down a degree or two in cold weather, and turning down the water heater (120° is warm enough for most people), you can both save a bundle and help the environment.

3. That housewarming party? Make it a potluck. Have everyone pitch in for a potluck, or try a cheaper, creative option: Serving afternoon high tea is easier on the pocketbook (and you!) than a dinner party with wine and grilled meat.

4. Prioritize your remodeling and decorating projects. Start with projects crucial to the house's structural integrity and your family's comfort; don't choose new carpeting over fixing a leaky roof (or leaks may ruin the new carpet!). And throw in a couple cheap "extras"--a can of paint and some decorative pillows won't cost you much, but can make the place seem so much more like home.

5. Save for big expenses. New homeowners often forget that annual property tax and insurance payments are on the horizon, usually at the beginning of the new year (unless these expenses were already worked into your mortgage payment). Create a savings goal that will cover such costs, then set aside a bit each month.

6. Figure regular maintenance costs into your monthly budget. Most homeowners need to spend 1% to 3% of their home's value for annual maintenance. Deferring maintenance in hard times can sometimes make things worse--and more expensive--later. For example, failing to deal with peeling exterior paint can lead to dry rot.

7. Enjoy the quest for low-cost home furnishings. Challenge yourself: Don't simply walk into a store and buy a house full of furniture. Try garage sales, thrift stores, and websites like Craigslist or eBay. Wood furniture tends to offer the best value, because it's easily cleaned and won't need reupholstering. For new items, bargain hunt, piece by piece, from online and local retailers.

8. Make the most of homeowner tax deductions. As a homeowner, you can now deduct the costs of mortgage interest (including points), private mortgage insurance premiums (PMI), mortgage prepayment and late payment penalties (but try to avoid these!), state and local property taxes, interest on a home improvement loan, and interest on home-equity debt (with certain dollar limits). Plus, now that you're itemizing, you can also take advantage of other deductions such as gifts to charity.

9. Get a refund on your homeowners' insurance premium. Even if you paid a whole year's premium when you bought your house, you can make changes to your policy and get either a refund or a reduction of your payments midyear. For example, you might qualify for a discount if you add a security system and fire alarm, deadbolt locks, or (depending on where you live) hurricane-resistant shutters. While you're at it, tell your car insurer about your change of address--if it's in a zip code with a lower crime rate, that premium might go down, too.

About THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE for FIRST-TIME HOMEOWNERS: Maximize Your Investment & Enjoy Your New Home is filled with easy-to-implement ideas, crucial advice and helpful reminders about how homeowners can keep their biggest investment working for them. Nolo is proud to join with USA TODAY, the most-read newspaper in the U.S.A, to produce a series of books on personal finance and legal topics. By combining Nolo's topical expertise and team of in-house editors, researchers, and writers with USA TODAY's trademark graphics and cutting-edge reporting, we hope to produce books that set new standards for being relevant, insightful and helpful.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Nolo; 1 edition (October 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413308953
• ISBN-13: 978-1413308952
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #571,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful but superficial, November 1, 2008

By 

t9k (Bethesda, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Essential Guide for First-Time Homeowners: Maximize Your Investment & Enjoy Your New Home (USA Today/Nolo Series) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

This is not so much an "Essential Guide" as it is a collection of mostly-useful tips, diluted with a lot of cute fluff. For example, there is a chapter with lots of bullet point lists for handling disputes with neighbors, along with a cookie recipe so you can "Woo the Neighbors With These Chocolate-Filled Cookies".

The book tries to cover too many subjects (home maintenance, real estate finance, neighbor law, etc.) and ends up with insufficient detail. The chapter on home maintenance contains a brief schedule of things to check in each month, but what is a first-time homeowner going to get out of the recommendation to "Test the pressure and temperature valve on your water heater by opening it and allowing some water to flow out"? As with most of the tips, a bit more detail telling the reader how to do this would make the advice useful instead of just nagging.

Most of the tips are helpful if incomplete, and most first-time homeowners would benefit from skimming this book. But the book should not be considered a substitute for a real reference on any of the subjects it covers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful book, November 14, 2008

By 

S. J Parker (Edmond, Ok) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Guide for First-Time Homeowners: Maximize Your Investment & Enjoy Your New Home (USA Today/Nolo Series) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

I'm not a first time homebuyer, but I have 3 children who will be soon.

This book has a lot of good information for first timers. Like knowing when you move in where your main shut offs are - gas, water, electric, etc.

In some important areas not enough detail & specifics, i.e. financing, insurance, home inspections. Of course this should have been researched prior to purchase.

The author talks alot about home maintenance & upgrading. Before making any decisions on energy saving changes - "get an energy audit. A professional will perform several tests and assess your current energy use. There will be some upfront costs - usually $100. to $200 - and your utility company may even offer these services or subsidize payment to an independent auditor, if you ask. In any case, the audit may discover easily correctible problems. For more information, visit the Dept of Energy's Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy website ( www.eere.energy.gov; type "energy audit" in the search box).

Other parts of the book didn't seem revelent, i.e. hybrid cars & organic gardening. Other books cover this type of information in much more detail.

Overall its an informative book & I'd recommend it. The 3 stars was an error, which this review page won't let me change. 5 stars

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy a house without it, December 18, 2008

By 

Dr. Bojan Tunguz (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Guide for First-Time Homeowners: Maximize Your Investment & Enjoy Your New Home (USA Today/Nolo Series) (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Navigating the maze of new and often competing demands that owning a new home can bring along can be quite overwhelming. This is doubly so if one is trying to do it on one's own, without an informed help of a friend or a relative. Even so, there are many legal and practical hurdles that can get in the way, which even the most seasoned homeowner has not anticipated. For all such prospective and current homeowners, "The Essential Guide for First-Time Homeowners: Maximize Your Investment & Enjoy Your New Home" is an essential and useful guide. It covers all the basics of selecting and purchasing your first home, and guides you beyond the first weeks and months of ownership and helps you with useful tips on how to maintain your home so that its value may not decrease over time. The only objection that I have with the book is that it devotes one whole chapter to "greening" of your home. Most of the suggestions presented in that chapter are so outlandish ("get rid of the lawn"), impractical, or both for most residential areas, that it clearly detracts from otherwise well written and useful book. Even with that caveat, this is still a very good book to consider purchasing if you are seriously considering buying your first home. It could very well save you a lot of time and money in a long run.